The €16 fare

The new fare deal with Irish Rail has to be the bargain of the year.

€16 single to Cork/Tralee is a great deal and obviously Irish Rail are closely watching Ryanair on both routes.

To avail of the fare you have to log on to www.irishrail.ie. There are some glitches with the system.

I travelled yesterday from Tralee to Dublin on one of those fares. When you book your ticket you have to nominate a station where you wish to collect your ticket.

At the big stations there are machines where you can collect your ticket. But for example in Tralee there is no such machine and when I was due to arrive for the 19.15 train the ticket office was closed. So, make sure your station has a machine and if not, telephone the station in advance to leave the ticket with a member of staff.

And the seat that was designated to me on my booking form was not booked for me on the train.
But as the train was almost empty there was no difficulty.

With the current price of fuel, Irish Rail must be giving serious thought to reducing some of its services. in its new timetable, which is due in mid December.